Data back-ups

Any place where you store your data can be susceptible to loss. You may, for example, have a hard drive failure, lose your USB stick, have your data corrupted by a virus, have your laptop stolen or your external hard drive may stop working, so it is important that you keep your work or data backed up.

Where should I store the back up?

You should keep at least one copy of your work on the H:drive, which is your own personal storage area. This gets backed up on a daily basis.

The H:drive is stored on the University's network servers, so your files can be accessed from any computer after you have logged in.

The H:drive is also accessible from your home computer or laptop via MyDrive.

You can also make use of the free online storage area provided with the University Student Google Mail accounts, where you can access your work from any computer with an Internet connection.

You should always:

save your work regularly while working on it (every 10-20 minutes). If you lose your connection or the computer crashes, you may then be able to retrieve most of your work.

make multiple backups of your work. If you use a CD or USB, make copies on your H:drive too, in case you lose or damage them or the data becomes corrupted.

If you are backing up your data on a separate device, make sure you store it in a seperate place to your original data. The usual recommendation is to keep the data at least 60 metres apart. If your laptop bag gets stolen and you keep your backups in the same bag as the laptop, then you have still lost your data.